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  Bloomberg As Chinese companies go on a record $157 billion overseas buying binge, they’re collecting their corporate trophies at the cheapest levels in four years. The median price they’re paying this year amounts to 14 times the Ebitda — or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization — of the target companies, down from a multiple of 16 in ...

  Bloomberg Palm oil stockpiles in Malaysia declined in July as exports from the world’s second-largest producer surged to the highest this year. Inventories fell 0.2 percent to 1.77 million metric tons at the end of July from a revised 1.775 million tons a month earlier, according to data released by the Malaysian Palm Oil Board on Wednesday. That compares ...

  BLOOMBERG China’s official bad-loan ratio held at 1.75 percent in the second quarter after almost three years of increases, suggesting some progress as President Xi Jinping’s officials try to defuse risks from the nation’s explosion in credit. The China Banking Regulatory Commission didn’t give reasons in Wednesday’s data release. Lenders have stepped up efforts to clean up nonperforming debt ...

  Bloomberg China’s imports of corn and feed grains are set to slump after the government increased the amount auctioned from state reserves and domestic prices dropped to a decade low, according to analysts. The government is offering about 7.9 million metric tons of corn from its stockpiles for a third week. That compares with 6 million tons offered in ...

  Bloomberg The failure of Delta Air Lines Inc.’s worldwide computer network this week spotlights the vulnerability of the information systems sustaining the biggest US carriers, each of which has contended with major disruptions during the last year. Complex networks cobbled together over the decades need major overhauls requiring significant new investments, said Bob Edwards, a former chief information officer ...

  Bloomberg Air Berlin Plc, the German airline that’s 29 percent-owned by Etihad Airways PJSC, said its second-quarter loss widened as costs increased as the carrier switched to an all-leased fleet and the euro declined against the dollar. The loss before interest and taxes almost quadrupled to 62.7 million euros ($69.9 million) from 15.9 million euros a year earlier, Germany’s ...

  Bloomberg India’s finance minister has approved a proposal that clarifies how Apple Inc. could open stores in the fast-growing economy without initially having to source components locally, people familiar with the matter said. Arun Jaitley ratified a proposal that gives the information technology ministry the power to label a retailer of a single brand as a provider of cutting-edge ...

  Bloomberg Tesla Motors Inc. marked the opening of its largest North American sales, service and delivery center in San Francisco, a key market from which Elon Musk’s electric-car maker will introduce its all-important Model 3 sedan late next year. Though Tesla is based in nearby Palo Alto, the 65,000-square-foot (6,039-square-meter) San Francisco center is the company’s first in the ...

  Bloomberg What is the price of a view of Paris’s best-known monuments? France’s Socialist government will tell you. For all Saint-Germain-des-Pres’ charm, long gone are the days when a tiny 11 square-meter (118 square feet) furnished studio flat commanded 656 euros ($724) in monthly rent. Real-estate agency Inter Immobilier last month had to explain to the new owner of ...

  Bloomberg Shares of Obayashi Corp. fell for a seventh day after a unit of the Japanese construction company was found to have done work on a San Francisco tower that is sinking. The shares dropped 4.9 percent to 956 yen at the close in Tokyo Tuesday after earlier falling as much as 8.6 percent, the largest decline since May ...